


Hatchling

by abyss1826



Category: Teen Titans (Animated Series)
Genre: Age Regression/De-Aging, Fluff
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-01-29
Updated: 2019-01-29
Packaged: 2019-10-18 15:29:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,390
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17583488
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/abyss1826/pseuds/abyss1826
Summary: After Slade's newest attempt to take Robin as his apprentice fails, the team is left to find the ten-year-old acrobat themselves.





	Hatchling

“Stay on your guard everyone, we don't know what this person is capable of,” Robin ordered as they chased the thin, black figure beneath the docks of Jump City.

“Or what they're here for,” Raven added.

“Shipment looked like some kind of electronics or something,” Cyborg noted.

“Maybe Control Freak got a sidekick.”

“I don't think that guy's capable of getting  _ anyone _ ,” Beast Boy remarked.

“They're heading towards downtown, we need to cut them off before we lose them,” Robin stated as they got into the warehouse district.

“On it.” Raven pulled four dumpsters out of the alleyways to block the road, forcing the person to a halt. As the Titans caught up, however, they watched the criminal multiply and split up. Robin estimated about 25 of them, and ten stuck around to slow down the team. Each one took a few hits before dissolving into smoke, and by the time they were all downed the air was thick with black dust. 

“Split up and radio if you find the real one,” Robin ordered, choosing a direction. Raven went with him, the other three going down the other alley. 

“Is there a way for you to tell which one is real?” Robin asked.

“No.” As they turned another corner he grinned.

“There’s only one outlet road for them to take from here, I’ll go up top to cut them off.”

“Got it.” Raven kept flying while her partner grappled into the sky and disappeared beyond the roofs of the warehouses. 

“ **Friends** ,” came Starfire’s voice from the communicator, “ **the ones we followed were not real-** ”

“- **We’re on our way to you now** ,” Cyborg finished.

“Robin’s heading to cut them off,” Raven replied.

“ **We are sure to be victorious** !” At that moment one of the figures she was chasing threw up a barrier. Too close to stop fully, she ran into it. Rather than try to see how high it went Raven teleported herself through the buildings’ shadows. She emerged just in time to see something in the air flash blue. Robin’s bright yellow cape caught her attention as it rushed the pavement. She screamed. Ignoring the criminal they were meant to be pursuing she launched herself down the tight street. They collided with a thud. When her feet hit the pavement she closed her eyes and collected herself. Someone punched her in the jaw, making her stagger backwards and drop her teammate. 

When the stars had left her eyes she levitated to look around. Neither Robin nor the criminal were in sight.

Starfire set Cyborg down on the rooftop nearest to where Raven hovered as they arrived.

“Did you lose the assailants?” Before she could answer Cyborg spoke up, staring at a map he was projecting.

“Where’d Robs’ signal go?” The three of them looked at her.

“We need to spread out,  _ now _ .”

 

Robin didn’t know where he was. Not only was he definitely  _ not _ in Gotham, but he couldn’t recognise the skyline at all. He had gotten away from… whoever that cloaked lady had been, but he couldn’t get his com to work. If  _ he _ didn’t know where he was, then Batman probably didn’t either, and Robin didn’t even know how he had gotten to be wherever this place was. Had someone teleported him somewhere in a fight? Would one of them do that?

He thought to himself as he hopped from building to building.

Riddler? Maybe, though it was a pretty strange and probably complicated thing to teleport him all the way out of Gotham if he answered wrong. And didn’t Nygma  _ want _ them to be able to solve his puzzles anyway? So that he could keep making them? How would Robin solve it if he wasn’t even in Gotham? Not to mention how  _ pissed _ the Bat would be….

He dropped into the shadows of a quiet alleyway and fiddled with the com on his wrist, trying to make the signal stronger. After a few minutes it clicked. It was fuzzy, but it clicked.

“B?”

No one answered. Hearing footsteps he ducked behind a dumpster.

“I know you’re there, Robin,” a low voice said. He peaked over it. It belonged to a large man in black and orange armor. “There’s no need to hide. I’m only here to help.”

“Who are you?”

“A friend of Batman,” the man answered. Robin narrowed his eyes. “You’re a while away from Gotham, he asked that I make sure you’re alright until he can get you.” Still hiding behind the dumpster, the boy grabbed a handful of smoke pellets from his belt.

“Batman doesn’t have friends.” The man got closer.

“You’re coming with me, boy.” Robin was about to throw the pellets when the man suddenly kicked the dumpster, scraping the small boy beneath it. Robin heard the calm, heavy footsteps approach through the detonated fog as he struggled to lift the dumpster enough to wiggle free.  _ Enhanced strength _ , he thought. His wrist throbbed, probably sprained from the impact, and he definitely would have a sizable bump on the back of the his head. 

The weight was lifted, just for a moment, and he scrambled away faster than the man had accounted for. The man cursed as Robin sprung to his feet, but the boy soon froze as he noticed four red glowing eyes emerging in the dark over the man's shoulder. He looked behind him, pulling something out of his utility belt as Robin took a step back.

**_“Get Away From Him.”_ ** the shadows growled. Tendrils of pitch black engulfed him and slammed him into the pavement.

Robin had seen a lot of awful, terrifying things since the day he arrived in Gotham, but those were caused by people. People who were criminals, people who hurt others for fun, people that even Batman wouldn’t let him near on bad nights. But they were always people.

The thing that threw the man into the street was terrifyingly, not a person, and as he ran he ignored the sharp prick he felt in his arm, as he did all the other scrapes he had.

 

“Shouldn't you be more worried about your little friend?” Slade taunted as he fought off Beast Boy's lion form with his staff.

“What did you do to him?” Starfire demanded.

“Don't be foolish, you all know I am not capable of spellcasting,” he chided. “I did nothing at all.”

“Right, and we're just gonna  _ believe _ you had nothing to do with this,” Cyborg remarked.

“I never said  _ that _ .”

“It may be a more worthy effort to find Robin, do you not think so?” Starfire asked, hovering next to him for a moment.

“Rae, do you have eyes on him yet?” Cyborg called.

“No, but I have eyes on something  _ else _ ,” she growled. Muttering her incantation she startled the other Titans, sending her projection streaking through Slade's chest. A sparking hole was left where a heart would have been, and she stood holding the replica's power source. She crushed it. “Son of a bitch.”

“Fan out,” Cyborg ordered, “He didn’t get far last time, we’ll find him again.”

 

Raven stared up into the rafters of the picnic shelter as she pulled out her com. 

“Meet at my location.”

“ **Did ya find him** ?” Beast boy asked. 

“Mhm.”

“Is he alright?” Starfire asked, the wind brought on by her flying blowing off Raven’s hood.

“Slade hit him with a tranquilizer,” she said, holding the dart she had found in her palm, “but he seems fine.”

“I see…” The heavy thud of Beast Boy dropping Cyborg off near them announced the boys’ arrivals. Seeing their confused expressions, Raven showed them the dart and pointed up. 

“Aw man…” Cyborg muttered. Robin had crammed himself into the corner of the roof above them. “Can you get him down?”

“Yes,” Raven answered, “I just thought it was something all of us should see.”

“He has become quite small, hasn’t he?” Starfire giggled.

“How long do you think it will take to wear off?”

“No idea,” she replied, levitating the boy down from his perch and into her arms. “We should get him to the tower before anything else happens.” She kept his legs around her waist and her arm along his back, shooting Beast Boy a withering glare when she caught him taking a picture. 

“He’ll want us to fill him in,” the teen chuckled nervously.

“Whatever.”

**Author's Note:**

> Please comment if you enjoyed!


End file.
